Can GPS tracking technology prevent a swine flu pandemic? Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications hopes to find out this autumn by testing a mobile phone-based GPS tracking system that constantly monitors each individual’s location and sends text alerts to participants if they cross paths with anyone who is later identified as a flu victim.

The proposed system relies on mobile phone providers to constantly track the subjects’ geographical locations and keep chronological records of their movements in a database. When a person is labeled as “infected,” all the past location data in the database is analyzed to determine whether or not anyone came within close proximity to the infected individual.

The system will know, for example, whether or not you once boarded the same train or sat in the same movie theater as the infected individual, and it will send you a text message containing the details of the close encounter. The text messages will also provide instructions on specific measures to take in response.

The primary purpose of the test, which will involve about 2,000 volunteers in both urban and rural areas, is to verify the precision of GPS tracking technology, estimate the potential costs of operating such a system, and determine whether or not such a system can be put into practical use.

To be of any real use in a place like Tokyo, a phone-based disease-tracking system would require the participation of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of subscribers willing to have their locations tracked — not a stretch given the popularity of wireless services such as NTT DoCoMo’s “iConcier,” which provides personalized, concierge-like services to individual mobile phones based on location data, shopping history, and other personal information.

From a privacy standpoint, opinions differ on the degree to which sensitive personal data such as location and travel history should be shared and used. With this in mind, the ministry will also explore the issue of psychological resistance to the use of personal information.

This is not even a slipperly slope...this is right off the f**king cliff! This has absolutely nothing to do with preventing epidemics and is just an effort to overcome people's expectations of privacy when it comes to having their every movement recorded and preserved to serve whatever purpose government or big business can conjure up to help them stay in control of the masses.

This is a creepy "slippery slope" towards an Orwellian society where "big Brother" knows your every move. I find this very creepy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by justdust

This is not even a slipperly slope...this is right off the f**king cliff! This has absolutely nothing to do with preventing epidemics and is just an effort to overcome people's expectations of privacy when it comes to having their every movement recorded and preserved to serve whatever purpose government or big business can conjure up to help them stay in control of the masses.

Even as this is just a plan, for now, the worst scenerio that is coming out of this is exploring the issue of psychological resistance to the use of personal information thereby creating a negative mark on people who don't want their information shared with the government. Automatically if you choose not to share your information, you are labeled a subversive. This can't be good at all, and reminds me of the beginnings of a previous New Order.

Even as this is just a plan, for now, the worst scenerio that is coming out of this is exploring the issue of psychological resistance to the use of personal information thereby creating a negative mark on people who don't want their information shared with the government. Automatically if you choose not to share your information, you are labeled a subversive. This can't be good at all, and reminds me of the beginnings of a previous New Order.

The NWO is quite an interesting idea, but nothing more. It's easy to predict that things are going to happen as technology increases without attaching on a shadow group. Apart from the preaching, I couldn't see a plan like that succeeding considering that hackers would have a garage sale with everyone's information.

The NWO is quite an interesting idea, but nothing more. It's easy to predict that things are going to happen as technology increases without attaching on a shadow group. Apart from the preaching, I couldn't see a plan like that succeeding considering that hackers would have a garage sale with everyone's information.

It's funny that most people don't believe there is a sinister group or plan plotting the takeover of government or society as a whole. I mean it's never happened before right? Nowhere in history has any group gained enough power secretively to take over a nation and spread with their current methods of technology.

It's also been said that scientists realize that technology will bring on the end of the world as we know it, they're just sitting around waiting to see how it happens.

Fron the December 11 issue of Neuron(the US science journal)

Researchers from Japanís ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a personís mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other peopleís dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.

ďThese results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,Ē says Dr. Cheng. ďIn as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a personís thoughts with some degree of accuracy.Ē

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design ó particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artistís head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.

ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, ďThis technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.Ē

So, now, even your deepest darkest thoughts are no longer safe. Can we just see Orwell being as right as Verne was?